


House at the End of the Way

by cjwritergal



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Family, Gen, Not Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-22
Updated: 2014-02-22
Packaged: 2018-01-13 10:32:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1223071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cjwritergal/pseuds/cjwritergal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a house at the end of the way, blackened, burned, and cursed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	House at the End of the Way

There is a house at the end of the way, blackened and burned  _(and some whisper)_  cursed.

Children are told not to play there. It's said that you can smell dead things inside.

But it's burned, so it's not possible. There is nothing left but charred wood. Even flowers do not grow through the ash.

Still, those that were brave enough  _(dared and pushed and bribed)_  to go near can sense it on the air. Not a smell, not a taste, but something that fills their mouths anyway, and sends them running back.

A family used to live there. Sad tale, that is. A pretty woman and the husband  _(though they never really married, and some of the more rigid people claim that is what caused all the trouble in the first place. Doomed from the start, they were.)_

The husband had golden hair and eyes, and the woman, the pretty young ( _girl_ ) wife, sang pretty lullabies to her two equally golden sons.

All so young.

The man left his pretty wife and golden boys  _(good riddance, some would say, for the man always kept to himself. Others say that he always seemed sad, and they never knew why)._

The young  _(pretty)_  mother was left to sing half-hearted lullabies, and the boys- the boys grew and learned and some said they could carry blue lightning in their hands  _(Alchemy, even after all the world had seen, was still not often understood.)_

The boys were bright and happy, and with them the pretty young mother would smile.  _(To hide her pain? Did she feel the sickness in her body even then?)_

The village loved them. Perhaps that was why they kept telling their sad story.

The pretty young mother coughed pretty red blood and died  _(from sickness? From heartbreak? They say she never stopped waiting for him to return)._

The boys disappeared, and some whispered that there was a grave behind the house. The Rockbells  _(their neighbors and friends)_  are pale and evade answers when people ask about why the elder boy has a metal arm now.

Life goes on. The burned house becomes a legend. People where knew the wife say that they know the story; people who knew the children swear they saw blue lightning in the house that night.

They boys appear every now and then. Still golden, still bright, seeking knowledge, there one day, gone the next.  _(Did Edward loose his limbs in the fire? Is Alphonse so scarred that he hides inside a suit of armor?)_

Eventually, the facts become so garbled up in rumor and fear that no one is quiet sure what the truth is anymore  _(there is still a grave behind the house. People don't like to talk about it.)_

Years pass.

They boys are healed. There is no armor, and Edward's arm appears to be whole. They walk up the road. They walk home. They live on.

There is a house at the end of the way, blackened, burned (but the curse is broken).

Birds fly overhead, and flowers peek through the ash.


End file.
